You’ve got a great product or service. What’s holding your company back? Is it you? Are you a control freak? Can you delegate? Learn to delegate and you’ll be a better leader. If you don’t delegate you are the real problem as you continue to control everything and everybody. This poor leadership style holds people back from accepting responsibility and becoming accountable. When you make every decision, people can’t and don’t take on more responsibility. When you fix or solve problems for employees, they can’t be accountable. When you lead every meeting, managers don’t grow. When you approve every purchase, contract or strategic move, good people don’t have to think or be their best.

The more you control, the less employees perform. When you solve other people’s problems, they bring you more problems. But it makes you feel powerful when you control everything for everyone and wear a sign that says: “Bring me your problems.”

Learn to Delegate

If you can learn to delegate you’ll watch sales soar and you will be a better leader. When a customer calls with an issue, do you immediately handle it yourself and get right back to them? A better solution would be to listen and then turn your customer’s concern over to a supervisor or manager. When it’s time to make a major purchase or award a large contract, do you get right in the middle of the negotiations? Instead, ask your manager to review the proposals, analyze the inclusions and exclusions, negotiate terms with the lowest responsible company, and then get your final approval. When a supervisor asks you to call a supplier who isn’t performing, do you jump in and take charge? Train your supervisors to plan ahead, use written procedures, checklists, schedules, team meetings, and manage their workflow. A simple delegation strategy is to increase the maximum spending limit for all employees. The key is to stop making decisions for them!